The Ruby of Kishmoor | Page 9

I will keep it in safety and will return it to thee
upon this day a week hence, by which time I hope to have discharged
my cargo and be ready to continue my voyage to Demerara."
At these words the lady, who had been watching him all the time with a
most unaccountable eagerness, burst forth into words of such heart-felt
gratitude as to entirely overwhelm our hero. When her transports had
been somewhat assuaged she permitted him to depart, and the negress

conducted him back through the garden, whence she presently showed
him through the gate whither he had entered and out into the street.

III. The Terrific Encounter with the One-eyed Little Gentleman in
Black

Finding himself once more in the open street, Jonathan Rugg stood for
a while in the moonlight, endeavoring to compose his mind into
somewhat of that sobriety that was habitual with him; for, indeed, he
was not a little excited by the unexpected incidents that had just
befallen him. From this effort at composure he was aroused by
observing that a little gentleman clad all in black had stopped at a little
distance away and was looking very intently at him. In the brightness
of the moonlight our hero could see that the little gentleman possessed
but a single eye, and that he carried a gold-headed cane in his hand. He
had hardly time to observe these particulars, when the other approached
him with every appearance of politeness and cordiality.
"Sir," said he, "surely I am not mistaken in recognizing in you the
supercargo of the ship SUSANNA HAYES, which arrived this
afternoon at this port?"
"Indeed," said Jonathan, "thou art right, friend. That is my occupation,
and that is whence I came."
"To be sure!" said the little gentleman. "To be sure! To be sure! The
SUSANNA HAYES, with a cargo of Indian-corn meal, and from dear
good friend Jeremiah Doolittle, of Philadelphia. I know your good
master very well--very well indeed. And have you never heard him
speak of his friend Mr. Abner Greenway, of Kingston, Jamaica?"
"Why, no," replied Jonathan, "I have no such recollection of the name
nor do I know that any such name hath ever appeared upon our books."
"To be sure! To be sure!" repeated the little gentleman, briskly, and

with exceeding good-nature. "Indeed, my name is not likely to have
ever appeared upon his books, for I am not a business correspondent,
but one who, in times past, was his extremely intimate friend. There is
much I would like to ask about him, and, indeed, I was in hopes that
you would have been the bearer of a letter from him. But I have
lodgings at a little distance from here, so that if it is not requesting too
much of you maybe you will accompany me thither, so that we may
talk at our leisure. I would gladly accompany you to your ship instead
of urging you to come to my apartments, but I must tell you I am
possessed of a devil of a fever, so that my physician hath forbidden me
to be out of nights."
"Indeed," said Jonathan, whom, you may have observed, was of a very
easy disposition--"indeed, I shall be very glad to accompany thee to thy
lodgings. There is nothing I would like better than to serve any friend
of good Jeremiah Doolittle's."
And thereupon, and with great amity, the two walked off together, the
little one-eyed gentleman in black linking his arm confidingly into that
of Jonathan's, and tapping the pavement continually with his cane as he
trotted on at a great pace. He was very well acquainted with the town
(of which he was a citizen), and so interesting was his discourse that
they had gone a considerable distance before Jonathan observed they
were entering into a quarter darker and less frequented than that which
they had quitted. Tall brick houses stood upon either side, between
which stretched a narrow, crooked roadway, with a kennel running
down the centre.
In front of one of these houses--a tall and gloomy structure--our hero's
conductor stopped and, opening the door with a key, beckoned for him
to enter. Jonathan having complied, his new-found friend led the way
up a flight of steps, against which Jonathan's feet beat noisily in the
darkness, and at length, having ascended two stairways and having
reached a landing, he opened a door at the end of the passage and
ushered Jonathan into an apartment, unlighted, except for the
Moonshine, which, coming in through a partly open shutter, lay in a
brilliant patch of light upon the floor.

His conductor having struck a light with a flint and steel, our hero by
the illumination of a single candle presently discovered himself to be in
a